Winners: 451 Marketing - America's Best "Liked" Candle and Pfizer and GCI Health - Establishing a Voice for Fibromyalgia Patients on Facebook
451 Marketing - America's Best "Liked" Candle
For over 40 years, The Yankee Candle Company has crafted and sold high-quality scent products and become the #1 most-recognized name in the candle business. As the brand’s AOR for more than three years, 451 Marketing has launched more than 50 new fragrances for Yankee each year, and with this initiative, 451 Marketing set out to make the brand America’s Most “Liked” Candle by increasing audience, engagement and direct sales from the brand’s Facebook page.
To continually increase the size and number of engagements on Facebook, 451 Marketing developed monthly and ongoing campaigns that leveraged existing and potential followers to develop the most active community possible.
451 Marketing published a mix of content to drive sales and loyalty, through 1-2 daily posts and 1 custom image weekly; created a monthly content calendar to manage all messaging; ran strategic cross-platform campaigns to increase fan engagement, including sweepstakes, fan-generated content promotions, branded custom images and tab development. The most successful multi-platform promotion was The Next Man Candle sweepstakes, which incurred more than 9,500 entries with suggestions including Cedar Cabin, Barbeque, Clean Shaven and Pizza!
Overall, the campaign was a massive success. With increased posting, strategic content, and targeted campaigns, Yankee Candle’s Facebook engagement and fan base grew like wildfire. 120,603 new fans liked the page contributing to more than 137 million impressions – a 72.6% increase and 102.5 million in reach – a 204% increase.
New and existing fans were excited about the unique content. Nearly 1.7 million daily engaged users contributed to 1,023,444 likes and comments – an increase of 312.1% – and 53,739 shares – an increase of 408.2%.
GCI Health - Establishing a Voice for Fibromyalgia Patients on Facebook
Fibromyalgia (FM) – a condition characterized by chronic widespread pain and tenderness lasting for three or more months – affects an estimated five million Americans, mostly women. Yet even though so many people are impacted by this debilitating condition, FM isn’t often well understood. Several studies have shown that FM patients increasingly turn to the internet for information and support. They are active and engaged online, regularly visiting social networking sites to seek trusted sources of disease information and to find a sense of community.
It is with this information in mind that Pfizer and GCI Health collaborated to create a much-needed vehicle—a Facebook page— to provide valuable, consistent and supportive information about FM to the patient community. The team aimed to create a new community of patients to share their experiences and offer support to each other. This community also provides an invaluable touch point between Pfizer and the established advocates, positioning Pfizer as a true FM partner.
One facet involved the team creating a content library where posts were issued several times a week, creating a consistent voice and continuity to the page. The content also included tagging and linking to informative content from top FM bloggers and advocacy organizations.
Overall, Facebook has proven to be the ideal platform to reach and interact with FM patients. With posts issued several times a week, FibroCenter.com Facebook continues to engage the online FM community with original, credible and valuable FM information. Today, roughly 10 months post-launch, the page has garnered more than 86,385 page Likes and has reached a total audience of over 5.4 million.
Honorable Mentions:
• Alpaytac - Facebook Communications: Turkish Airlines
• Brand Definition - JBL Professional - Life Is a Stage
• FSC Interactive - Indulge: Riverwalk Grand Opening
• KC Projects, LLC - Take your Philanthropy to the Moon: Full Moon Bar-B-Que Sorority Challenge
• MD Anderson Cancer Center - MD Anderson Cancer Center Facebook page
• TCIP Turkish Catastrophe Insurance Pool - TCIP - Compulsory Earthquake Insurance
• Weber Shandwick - RNspire Cardinal Health's Nurse Appreciation Program